“Sergeant Arkin! Sergeant Arkin!”

“Don’t talk to me, Private.”

“But Sergeant! Where are they going? They’re leaving without us!”

Arkin lifted his head, which had been buried in his shoulder as he suppressed his rage. His face was redder and hotter than a sunburn in Miami. Private Harrison didn’t seem to notice. “Private?” Arkin whispered in the sweetest voice he could draw forth. “Do you know that you’re the reason we’re being left here?”

“Me? Ha! That’s funny, Sarge! How could I possibly make them leave?”

Patience running thin, Arkin peered out into the forest from under his helmet. As the camouflaged backs of his comrades shrank away into the shrubbery and vines, he tuned out the unintelligible voice of the moronic Private and slipped his fingers beneath a nearby rifle.

“Sergeant, what are we going to do for foo–” At this point, Harrison’s face is met with the wooden butt of the rifle. He fell to the ground, holding his nose.

For a few moments, there was silence. “Good!” the sergeant shouted, his heavy southern accent surprisingly intimidating. “Now shut up and stay down!” He threw the rifle fiercely aside and trudged into the vacant barracks.

“Sergeant?” Private Harrison called after him. “Was that for ignoring that push-up order last week?”

“Yes!” Sergeant Arkin screamed sarcastically. “Now stay out there, and give me five thousand!”

The Private obeyed. With his hands pressed against the grass, he completed one and collapsed. Nine minutes later, he performed a second push-up. And, feeling audacious enough to demonstrate an even greater feat of strength, he went for a third. Thirty minutes later, the Sergeant was asleep in the barracks, the Private struggled for his seventh push-up, and rain began to fall from above.

That next morning, Harrison lay wet and damp in the same spot on the ground, and had developed several bed sores over the course of the past day.

“Private!” shouted Arkin as he promptly kicked Harrison in the gut. “Wake up! We’re going hunting.”

Click link for Chapter Two:

http://authspot.com/short-stories/man-up-day-u-s-a-chapter-two/